The actress admitted to becoming friends with eccentric fashion designers and performance artists, Matthew Glamorre, Sybil Rouge, Link Leisure and Lyall Hakaraia saying: "I was celebrated entirely for who I was and these people were all about fun, hilarity and excitement.

"They'd been beaten on buses, queer-bashed, some people were even killed for the way that they looked. I would hear of Matthew Glamorre walking up Haverstock Hill in last night's make-up and a teapot on his head. I felt like I had come home."

Christie, who plays Brienne in Game of Thrones, added that the part was perfect for her.

She said: "This is the part I always wanted to play but never knew existed. All the things I had wanted to cloak about myself, that I felt a little ashamed and embarrassed about, had been bullied for, these things had a place they could live - in Brienne."

Christie also admitted that she gets a number of remarks from strangers about her looks, adding: "What they said was cruel, but actually they were just confused and shocked. My father always said, 'You can do anything a man can do'."

The 6"3 actress went on to speak about how her height has affected her relationships with men saying: "I wouldn't say it has increased my options. But I've always thought that the height is a very good detector of the good ones: because if they can get over that, they have got good mettle."

Full interview appears in the March issue of ELLE UK, on sale 30th January. Also available as a digital edition.